Matthew 4:1-4
St. Matthew tells us in today’s Gospel that, after his baptism, “Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.”
If the Son of God was tempted by the devil, then it should not surprise us that the devil is more than willing to tempt everyone else as well – especially since he is so successful, so often, in his temptation of everyone besides Jesus.
Satan is a real being. He was created as a glorious archangel, to worship and serve God. One of the greatest unanswerable questions of our religion, is the mystery of how and why Satan became internally corrupted, and fell from his original perfection.
How could this happen? How could something that God had created to be perfect and pure, twist itself into something evil and wicked – apart from any outside negative influences?
We don’t know how and why this happened. But we do know that it did happen. We also know that many other angels, inspired by Satan, joined him in his rebellion against God.
And we know – not only by Scriptural revelation, but also by our own observations of human history – that there are indeed supernatural forces at work among us, that are committed to the destruction of the human race, and to inspiring as much pain and agony among us as they can.
Satan and his minions hate God. But because God is God, they know that they can’t really touch him. They can’t hurt God directly.
But they believe that they can hurt God indirectly, by hurting what God loves most. And what God loves most among his creatures, is that segment of his creation that was made in his own image. What God loves most is the human race.
And so, the devil, and all the demons who work in coordination with him, temp all of us. They are very smart in how they do it, too.
These fallen creatures are immortal. During all the time of their existence, they have learned a lot about human nature, and have accumulated much knowledge about us and about how we think.
Over the millennia they have fine-tuned their techniques, and perfected their tactics. They know what usually works.
One of the things that works, is to bring a temptation to sin into someone’s life in such a way, that the one being tempted by the devil doesn’t even know that he is being tempted by the devil. Satan is very good at creating situations where the one being tempted to do something harmful, doesn’t even know that it would be something harmful.
More often than not, when someone is contemplating the commission of a sinful deed, he’s not thinking to himself, “should I do this evil thing?” Rather, he is thinking to himself, “Should I do this good thing?”
Very seldom does someone actively think, as he is committing his sins, that he is in fact committing sins. He thinks he is doing something beneficial and positive, or at least something neutral and harmless.
He justifies his actions. He persuades himself that he is doing the right thing, under the circumstances. And all the while, the devil is, as it were, whispering into his ear.
With the active cooperation of our own sinful nature, the devil has many successes in tricking us into hurting ourselves and others. Except for those relatively rare cases of direct demonic possession, Satan usually doesn’t have to get his hands dirty at all.
We do all his dirty work for him, as we hurl ourselves into actions and into relationships that are corrupt and corrupting.
It is often only in hindsight that people can see how foolish they were, or how much harm they caused themselves or others. But this wisdom of hindsight is generally not profound enough, or influential enough, to prevent people from falling into the same traps again and again.
During wartime, a smart general will not blindly and impetuously throw his army at an enemy position. He first will reconnoiter that position, and identify the weakest spot in the enemy’s defenses. The attack will then be concentrated at that weak spot.
That’s what the devil does, too. He will probe you, until he finds your weak spot. And when he finds it, he will exploit it – again and again.
That weak spot might be your laziness, your lust, your greed, your pride, your temper, or your envy. He might find an opening for his deceptions in the context of your loneliness, your poor health, your desire to succeed, or your fear of not being accepted or liked by others.
The devil will seek out your vulnerabilities, and exploit them: to your moral, spiritual, and physical harm. He will often amplify certain genetic or hereditary weaknesses you may have – which may predispose you toward addictive behavior, or anti-social behavior – to a point where you surrender to those weaknesses, and allow them to tear your life to shreds.
In one way or another, he will lie to you and blind you – in the moment of your temptation – so that you will not know or see what is actually happening. He will find a way to make you think that a bad decision is actually a good decision, and will then prompt you to make that decision.
On your own, you will not be able to grasp what is really going on, or be able to resist him. He is smarter than you. He is more powerful than you.
He has much less to lose than you do, since his eternal fate is already sealed. But he is very good at hiding that fact from you.
He is very good at distracting you from thoughts about God, and about God’s good and gracious will, precisely at those moments when such thoughts would serve you best – and would serve him least.
The only time when the devil’s attempts to lead someone into sin and self-destruction ended in complete failure on his part, was in his encounters with Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, and our human brother: especially in the encounter that he had with Jesus in the wilderness, at the beginning of his public ministry.
The devil probed Jesus at the point of the bodily weakness of his hunger, to see if he could get him to misuse his divine power by turning stones into bread. That didn’t work.
Satan also attempted to find a weak spot in the area of the common human desire to “show off” and to get attention from others; and in the area of the common human love for worldly power.
But these proud and selfish traits were not in Jesus. So, the devil’s attempts to get Jesus to jump off the pinnacle of the temple, and to bow down to him so as to be given all the kingdoms of the earth, did not work either.
Jesus resisted him, and remained as a man without sin. But he resisted him not just for himself, and for the preservation of his own personal integrity. He resisted him also for you. He resisted him in your place, and for your benefit.
When the devil assaults your conscience and tempts you, your human resolve and understanding – your own will and reason – are not enough of a barrier to throw up against him for your protection. He will always be able to maneuver his way in, and to slither around the feeble will, and the finite reason, of even the most worldly-wise of human beings.
But when the devil assaults your conscience and tempts you, and you by faith throw up against him the successful resistance of Christ as your shield, that shield will hold. As Christ, with his righteousness, stands between you and your tormentor, you will be protected.
We read in the First Epistle to the Corinthians that God “will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape.” Jesus – with everything he is for you, everything he has done for you, and everything he does for you now – is the way of escape.
As a man without any sin of his own, Jesus became the man – the God-man – who could and did carry the sins of others to the cross. He carried your sins to the cross.
Jesus carried to the cross all your failures to resist the devil, and all your defeats under the devil’s assaults. When Christ died for those sins, and when he rose again to demonstrate God the Father’s acceptance of his sacrifice, he did this for you.
As St. Paul writes to the Romans, Jesus our Lord “was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.” In Christ, we are now justified and forgiven. In Christ, we are now liberated from the devil’s power to twist us, to manipulate us, and to destroy us.
Jesus’ successes are credited to you by faith, so that before God they cover over all your failures. Jesus’ righteousness is credited to you by faith, so that before God it covers over all your iniquity.
As you are now in Christ, and as Christ is now in you, you also see and understand many things, where previously you were blind and ignorant. God’s Word has shone a spotlight on the devil’s tactics, and has exposed them.
The Holy Scriptures have been given to you as a sure measuring rod of objective, inspired truth, by which you can tell the difference between a Satanic temptation to evil, and a God-given opportunity for good.
Indeed, the inspired Scriptures are “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be…equipped for every good work,” as we are told in the Second Epistle to Timothy.
And while you were weak and unable to resist Satan’s allurements by the strength of your own will and reason, in Christ you are now strong. You are strong in the strength of the one who told Satan, “Away with you!”
You are strong in the strength of the one who rose from the grave, and who lives – invincibly – forevermore. You are strong in the strength of the one who is with you now, who is guarding you now, and who for your sake is telling Satan once again, “Away with you!”
And so, in your temptations, cling to Christ – because Christ is clinging to you. He is clinging to you in the day of trial.
He is clinging to you in the darkness of your fears and uncertainties. He is clinging to you at all those times when the devil comes once again, and tries once again to pull you away from the love and light of God.
If you let go of your Savior, and turn aside from his gospel, you will thereby be letting go of all of the protections and blessings that are now yours in him. The devil will once again have free reign with you.
The devil will once again succeed, unimpeded, in bringing you down. You will be with him for eternity, and not with God. May this never be!
Satan is wily in his attacks, on individuals loved by God, and on their godly relationships. He is clever, beyond any human cleverness that might be brought to bear in resisting him, or even in figuring out what he is doing.
Let us all heed today the Lenten call of our Lord, that this is a time for us to stop allowing the devil to have as much influence in our lives as we have been allowing him to have. This is a time for our eyes and our ears to be opened once again.
This is a time for us to repent of all half-heartedness, all flippancy regarding the things of God, and all presumption regarding our ability to protect ourselves from the devil’s schemes.
This is a time to be renewed in faith – faith in the only one who can help us and deliver us – as our divine-human helper and deliverer comes to us in his Word and sacrament: to rearm us for this battle, and to equip us for our final victory in him.
Now is the time to listen to what St. James tells us:
“Submit yourselves…to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. … Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.”
And now is also the time to listen to what St. Paul tells us, in his Epistle to the Romans:
“I want you to be wise as to what is good, and innocent as to what is evil. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.” Amen.